Method of conducting a National Professional Football League based lottery game

ABSTRACT

A method of conducting a National Professional Football League based lottery game is provided herein which refers to the National Professional Football League team matches played during football seasons. The game uses thirteen team matches that play during each football week. The participant would guess the winning teams or guess a tie outcome to a match that would happen at the end of the fourth quarter of a normal football game time. There is no overtime football game outcome considered in this lottery game. The method is using a table with thirteen team matches and includes columns for marking the guessing outcome of each match.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a lottery type game that refers to National Professional Football League games played during football season. In particular, the participants can guess the outcome of the National Professional Football League team matches and play the game to win monetary value.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Lottery games have been proven to gain in popularity throughout several States in USA. Although there are lottery games utilizing a mechanized draw of numbers in the processes of determining the winner participant, there is no lottery game that can utilize one's knowledge in sports and reward the winner participant with monetary value.

This invention provides the benefit and encourages the football fans to follow the statistics of the football teams by using any form of ordinary media to gather experience that can be used to play the game. The participants in this game can utilize their experience and test their in-depth knowledge for the standings of each National Professional Football League team. This experience and in-depth knowledge includes the health condition of all the players, the winning records and other statistics of each team. The fan can utilize and apply this experience in the lottery game called “LUCKY THIRTEEN ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY” and be rewarded by winning monetary value.

The game is simple and it can also be played by fans that have no significant knowledge of football rules or National Professional Football League team standings. The football fans can just select their favorite teams or randomly guess the outcome of each football match.

SUMMARY

The objective of the present invention is to provide a system and a method that facilitates a lottery game and rewards the winners with monetary value. It formulates the method in rewarding participants with knowledge in National Professional Football League teams and players, or participants that are using just lucky guesses in playing the game.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE TABLE

The table below represents a ticket, as an example and shows how it is structured and what will be a correct marking in making a selection for each football match outcome.

LUCKY THIRTEEN ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY Visitor Home V H T V H T V H T V H T V H T O Baltimore Cincinnati                Ravens Bengals Miami New England                Dolphins Patriots Kansas City Jacksonville                Chiefs Jaguars Houston Indianapolis                Texans Colts Arizona Chicago                Cardinals Bears Washington Atlanta                Redskins Falcons Green Bay Tampa Bay                Packers Buccaneers Carolina New Orleans                Panthers Saints Detroit Seattle                Lions Seahawks Tennessee San                Titans Francisco 49ers San Diego New York                Chargers Giants Dallas Philadelphia                Cowboys Eagles Pittsburgh Denver                Steelers Broncos It uses the actual Sunday Nov. 8, 2009 football matches without referring to the outcome of the matches. Following below are types of correct and incorrect markings for the ticket to be played:  Correct marking X Incorrect marking √ Incorrect marking

The table includes the column of the visiting teams and the column of the home teams. It also includes five sets of three columns marked as “V”, “H” and “T”, where “V” stands for Visitors, “H” stands for Home and “T” stands for games that have resulted into a tie score at the end of the fourth quarter. The last column marked “0”, can be used by the player to mark the outcome of each game played by the two teams.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The name chosen for the game is “LUCKY THIRTEEN ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY”. It refers to thirteen National Professional Football League games that will be played each week on Sundays and also some Monday Night Football games. It is a simple and fun game to be played by everybody. It offers the chance to win some monetary value when one guesses the correct outcome of the football games of a particular Sunday or Monday Night games.

There are several factors taken into consideration during the process of selecting the games to be listed in each week's “LUCKY THIRTEEN” ticket. These factors are taken into consideration in order to increase the level of difficulty in predicting the outcome of each game.

The factors are based on each team's records of wins and past history. In addition, teams with similar records in scoring, records of successful offenses and defenses and records of health conditions of football team players can also be taken into consideration during the selection process.

Games with teams having excellent defense records are preferred to be selected in the ticket in order to increase the possibility of a game going into an overtime period. When there are not thirteen games played on a particular Sunday then the Monday Night Football game will be selected and included in the list of the thirteen games. The bonus of this will be the excitement for players who have already guessed correctly the match outcome of the Sunday's twelve games and are depending on the Monday's game to have thirteen correct guesses.

This lottery game is consisted of thirteen matches of twenty six teams. In the table the columns marked as “V” are for visiting teams, the columns marked as “H” are for the home teams and the columns marked as “T” are for games that have resulted into a tie score by the end of the fourth quarter. In each ticket there are a total of five “V”, “H” &“T” groups of columns, which offers the options of five different sets of selections. The outcome of each game can be noted on the last column called “0”.

To play the game one has to guess who the winning team will be or guess a tie outcome of a match and mark the appropriate box. When the winning team is the visiting team, then a mark on the “Visitors” column should be noted. When the winning team is the home team then a mark should be placed on the “Home” column. The marking on the “T” column is for games that will finish tie at the end of the fourth quarter. The team that has won the game in the overtime period does not count in this lottery game; what counts are only the results at the end of the fourth quarter.

There are five chances per ticket, (“V”, “H” & “T” group of columns) to play and guess the outcome of each football match. The cost for each column played is $1.00. To increase winning chances one can play up to five different columns for a total cost of $5.00 per ticket.

The submission of all tickets will be at the Organization's authorized dealers. All tickets must be submitted by no later than one hour before the start of Sunday's first game. The authorized dealer will use a computerized machine that will be connected online with a central processing computer at the Organization and register the submitted ticket. The computerized machine will print a copy of the submitted ticket that will be used by the player as proof of ownership. The ticket copy will also include an assigned unique serial number that will be used by the Organization to identify the winning tickets. At the back side of the ticket copy will be a place where the player can print/register personal identification information to be used in the event the ticket is a winning ticket. All submitted ticket serial numbers will be registered at a central processing computer, at the Organizations center.

In addition to the above, the game can be played using the Internet. An Internet Site can be designed to allow the tickets to be completed and submitted electronically online to the Organization. The player will have to create an online account with all the necessary personal information that will be required for identification. This information will also include a “User ID” and a “Password” which the player can use to log-in to the online account. In addition, will also include an e-mail address where the player can be notified by the Organization, via e-mail, for winning tickets or other issues. A unique ticket serial number will be assigned to the electronic ticket and the player can receive, via e-mail, an online electronic copy of the ticket with the unique serial number printed on it. Upon preference of the player the ticket can be saved on the hard drive of a computer or be printed on paper for future reference.

A portion of the money collected by the Organization will be used for administration fees, expenses, profits and other purposes. The remaining amount of the money will be distributed to the winning tickets.

There are three categories of winning tickets:

-   -   a. Winning tickets with thirteen correct answers per column     -   b. Winning tickets with twelve correct answers per column     -   c. Winning tickets with eleven correct answers per column

The amount of money allocated to be distributed to the winning tickets is based on the level of success in guessing the outcome of the football matches. Tickets with eleven correct answers per column will win $1.00. A pre-determined percentage of the remaining money will be equally divided and distributed to the winning tickets that have twelve correct answers per column. The remaining percentage of money left will be equally divided and distributed to the winning tickets that have thirteen correct answers per column.

When there are no winning tickets with thirteen correct answers then the allocated money for tickets with thirteen correct answers will be rolled over to the pot that is to be distributed to the tickets with twelve correct answers. When there are no winning tickets with thirteen and twelve correct answers then the allocated money for those two categories will be rolled over to the pot of the tickets with eleven correct answers. When there are no tickets with thirteen, twelve and eleven correct answers then the total allocated money for all three categories will be rolled over to the next Sunday's games, following the same process of distribution between the three winning categories.

When there are no winning tickets of all three categories at the “last” Sunday of the regular season, then the allocated money for winning tickets will roll over to the tickets with ten correct answers. This process will be followed respectively until winning tickets have been identified where the allocated money can be distributed accordingly.

By the end of the last football game to be played, on any given Sunday, the computer will indentify all winning number of tickets. A winning ticket can be taken over to an authorized dealer for registration and winning payout by the authorized dealer for amounts up to $100.00. Amounts larger than $100.00 should be paid out directly by the Organization within 60 calendar days. The winner should complete all personal information on the back of the winning ticket and submit to the Organization's office for collection of winnings.

All players with a winning ticket, who have used the Internet to play the game, will be notified by the Organization via e-mail. To claim the winnings the player will have to log-in to his/her account by providing the Used ID and Password. After successful log-in to the account, he/she will be asked to enter the unique serial identification number that was assigned to the ticket when it was first purchased online. This process will confirm the ownership of the winning ticket with the correct owner.

Depending on the player's preferences, the payout of the winnings will be made by the Organization either with electronic transfer of funds into the winner's bank account or by a Bank check that can be issued by the Organization and mailed to the winner's postal address.

Unclaimed and unpaid tickets will remain in the records for up to six months time period. Unclaimed tickets for longer than six months will be voided and the Organization will benefit from the winning money.

From the detailed description and specifications of the invention given above it is apparent that it is intended by the appended claims to cover all such features and advantages of the invention, which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that the scope of the claims appended hereto is limited to the description as set forth herein, but the claims should be constructed as encompassing all features, benefits and advantages that would be treated as equivalent to those of the present invention by those skilled in the art.

Reference Cited [Referenced By] U.S. patent Documents 4,540,174 September 1985 Coppock 4,883,636 November 1989 Fantle 5,332,218 July 1994 Lucey 5,417,424 May 1995 Snowden et al. 5,518,239 May 1996 Johnston 5,586,937 December 1996 Menashe 5,830,069 November 1998 Soltesz et al. 6,012,984 January 2000 Roseman 6,383,078 May 2002 Yacenda 6,669,565 December 2003 Liege 6,929,544 August 2005 Osterer 7,172,508 February 2007 Simon et al. 7,637,809 December 2009 Ghosh 7,641,549 January 2010 Asher et al. 

1. A lottery game method based on National Professional Football League games played during each year's football season.
 2. The method of claim 1, which uses the name “LUCKY THIRTEEN ON ANY GIVEN SUNDAY”.
 3. The method of claim 2, defining the process of selecting the National Professional Football League games to be listed in the table and the factors taken into consideration during the football team selection process.
 4. The method of claim 3, defining the game instructions including the table formulation and functionality.
 5. The method of claim 4, providing the table structure, called ticket, and including a table example.
 6. The method of claim 5, providing information for the correct marking of the ticket for each game.
 7. The method of claim 6, defining the process for ticket submission and ticket registration using the paper form process.
 8. The method of claim 7, defining the process to use the means of electronic network to register submitted tickets.
 9. The method of claim 8, defining the process and method to play the game and submit tickets electronically using a website over the Global Internet Network.
 10. The method of claim 9, defining the process of winning tickets including the process of winnings distribution.
 11. The method of claim 10, defining the process for claiming the winnings and providing a time frame for winnings to be claimed.
 12. The method of defining the process of playing the game by contacting an Internet web site of a .com company through the World Wide Web using a personal computer.
 13. The method of claim 12, defining the process for the need of the player to create an on-line personal account including a bank account or a credit card account for payments and winning claims.
 14. The method of claim 12, defining the process for the ticket to be completed online and submitted electronically to the Internet Company.
 15. The method of claim 14, defining the process of assigning an electronic ticket number to the ticket played online and providing a copy of the submitted ticket to the player.
 16. The method of claim that defines Organization to be the entity, which provides, organizes and publishes this lottery game.
 17. The method of claim that defines as player the person who actively participates in the lottery game. 